Well I ventured out this weekend to see what the over eager mountain bikers would do in the annual Dust ‘Til Dawn race in Thetford Forest. Over 1000 riders going round a 9mile track in the pitch black, the odd crash, the odd grumpy soul as the night wore on, but once the racing started it was a dry race, if a little dusty.

Solo , 2 or 4 person teams entered, why racing solo for 12hrs thru the night could be fun? i’m not sure, sounds like torture. Anyway, off they set into the dark, head and bike torches lighting the way apart from the start finish straight which was lit up like a Xmas tree.

The well named Caravan Club who I partly followed, stayed in a caravan for the night while not racing, they are included in some of the pictures below, In the end I took 200 odd pictures of various people at different points during the night, not as many as I wanted, or in places I wanted to go as a few complained of the flash from behind them (not in the eyes) and then the sudden darkness again, so just watched the racing for a lot of it, keeping tabs on the winners and loser’s, the odd injured rider coming back to camp.

Pre race with the race face on,?

Not long after the picture above the sun went down and it was race time, Full moon was out and I ventured into the forest to get a few pictures of the riders on the 2nd lap, Ok it was dead quiet apart from the noise of riders going past every few minutes. Somehow in the dark I managed to get a picture of the team with number 1, sponsored by wiggle.co.uk (aptly named bike website)

Many hours later It was Stuarts turn to do a lap, having let his team do alllll the work, ok, maybe they shared the work, but here he is, waiting like a coiled spring to jump into action, the faces of the people waiting as the night wore on was classic, the eyes showing the lack of sleep and the ordeal they were taking on showed in the faces. but all seemed to enjoy it when they finished there laps. The handover of a wrist band which signified the baton for the team riders and each number on a bike had a transponder chip in it to clock lap times etc when they crossed the finish line on each lap, a well organised event..

Lastly a couple of pictures of the caravan club actually doing some riding, they didn’t go and just drink beer and eat do-nuts, although it did happen…….  The team was dedicated to the cause….. a fun night of mountain biking…

Then in the early hours of the morning a catastrophe, a major minor injury, well OK, an old one I aggravated again. In the dark I went and twisted my knee again, so ended up leaving the event at around 3am to go get some ice on it, for all I know the caravan club could have won the event, but I doubt it……….

Good going all who entered and managed to finish.

Update 6th Oct 2009:

A mini gallery of some of the pictures is available here

Andy